As far as I am concerned, I think both the Ford Super-Duty and the Dodge Ram Heavy Duty are terrific trucks. You can't go wrong with either of them. As long as you properly take care of them they will last you long enough until you want a new one anyway. I personally like the Cummins because any over-the-road trucker will tell you that a I-6 is much more reliable than a V-8. Cummins is a proven name in the industry for EVER!!! So is International Navistar who created the Powerstroke, but it is not as proven as the Cummins. If your talking drag racing than yea the powerstroke is the way to go STOCK!!!! You can do much more work to the Cummins for less money and it will eat the Powerstroke alive. If it is strictly work and towing than the Cummins is the way to go. It produces all of its torque at much lower RPM's than the Powerstroke does. Everybody has their preference, but for me the Cummins is the way to go.

 

Chomsky: If it is strictly work and towing than the Cummins is the way to go. It produces all of its torque at much lower RPM's than the Powerstroke does.

Ironman: Yes, they're both great engines, however, the above statement is a myth. PSD beats the Cummins in independent tow tests and low-end work. Egads and alas, how is that, you may say? (Hint: look in the "is the PSD the most durable" thread and read for a day or two. Keys: PSD has more total area under it's torque curve ... it's power spans a larger RPM range ... and finally ... it's mated to a vastly superior automatic transmissions and (newsflash) auto tranys give MORE power on the low-end for towing work.

 

Plus, I don't see any evidence of the Cummins having ever been more reliable than any other engine just because it is an inline. I understand that may be the case with OTR trucks, but their engines are a lot bigger and it makes them a lot harder to balance, and there would be an advantage. I think the auto industry is fully capable of making a reliable V8.

 

Mr. Lariat,

You raise an excellant point, my friend. Why didn't I think of that before? Hey ... there are MILLIONS of V-design engines on planet earth, many lasting long periods of time. I've read countless stories on Joe Blow getting his car to go 1M miles.

The assertion that Inlines are somehow more "reliable" than v's is: (drum roll) myth. Self-induced poppycock. Whirling dervish hype one must feed himself, as he mindlessly heads to the Dodge dealer. When I bought my dodge, I'm trying to remember if that have might even have been the secret codeword (Inlines are more reliable). I think they may have been playing that subliminally in the background music. Cause I bought it, literally.

Ironman

 

i think people get reliability confused w/ the idea that the cummins has less moving parts therefore less chance of something going out. Sounds like a good theory but i dont buy it. I6's may not be more reliable than V8's but the Cummins 5.9 is more relaible than the 6.0... end of story

 

"Cummins 5.9 is more relaible than the 6.0... end of story"

I think that should be edited to say "more reliable than the early 6.0's.....just the start of the story." The problems with the 6.0 have been way overblown. Someone posted that Ford has had 500 buybacks. Considering the number of these things that they sell, I think that is darn good. How many buybacks did GM have over the '99 redesign with their Shakerado's?? I haven't heard of anyone having major problems with a new 6.0 in a while. Those early problems are gone, dead, a thing of the past. Quit bringing them up, people. Can I keep bringing up Dodge's weak tranny's???? It's old news. Okay so the 6.0 had a rough start (500 buybacks out of the literally million sold). All they have done since then is work out the kinks so that it is a non-issue as well as BLOW THE COMPETITION AWAY in the meantime.

 

How long has the Cummins 600 been out, Budly? I really haven't seen it do anything special, and even including the 6.0s, yes, ALL of them, including buybacks, lemons, ones that were wrecked, ALL of them, 7.3s AND 6.0s, 98% of them are still on the road. Now, if you take away the 7.3s, you take away how many were wrecked, and then you might have what, 0.5 to 1% of 6.0s that were buybacks or lemons? I'd say that's a pretty small number of 6.0s to try to say that they're as problematic as people like Budly are making it out to be.

 

I prefer the Cummins right now solely on the basis that I believe it costs less to maintain. I've informally interviewed a few PSD owners in my area that didn't want to say anything bad about their truck at first but eventually broke down and told me everything from how very expensive their yearly bill is to sadly describing every disappointing anomaly that has happened at shockingly close intervals. Every truck develops problems I'm not saying the Cummins doesn't, but from what I have seen PSD owners were way unhappier than Cummins owners they just hid their dismay for some strange reason.

 

http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...d.php?t=109024
http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...d.php?t=109505
http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...d.php?t=109426
http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...d.php?t=109395
http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...d.php?t=109393
http://dieselram.com/cgi-bin/ultimat...;f=29;t=001317
http://dieselram.com/cgi-bin/ultimat...;f=29;t=001604
Not to nitpick but found these in less then 5 minutes just wanted to point out that everything has it's problems.

 

One guy said:

I'm becoming WELL acqainted with tow truck driver's this year. First my Ford, now my Dodge.

Thats gotta suck

 

Did you read the longevity thread. One engine made appearance after appearance. Everyones dad had one. It was in everyones first car. The 300 inline 6. To say that it is poppycock is itself a delusion. No engine has the record of the 300. Or the dodge slant six. Or the chevy 250. They are the most reliable DURABLE engines ever made. And they arent even a diesel. Diesels rev lower so tend to last longer. Well most diesels.
Your dodge is still runnin right. I dont see where somehow you were lied to. Inlines are very durable. Dodge is known to cost more to keep on the road. I dont think anyone has lied about that. Its in any consumer magazine if you look. If you educate yourself and make a sound purchasing decision. You bought one. It required a non routine repair. Suprise, suprise.

Several cummins have even gone 1 million miles without an overhaul. That seems durable to me.

Look. The record holding. Highest mileage vehicle ever built has an inline. http://www.cabinnaise.com/vpage/irv.htm Coincidence. I think not. This guy is in the guiness book of records. Look it up. He put 700k on it. Then rebuilt it. Since then. He has put 1.3 on the rebuild. Pretty durable.

The 300 earned the reputation of the most durable engine ever built. People didnt one day just say. Inlines are durable. They earned the respect of the population one engine at a time. I myself have owned many inlines with zero trouble into the 300k mile range, 200s 240s, 250s, and 300s. Accept it and move on.

 

The cummins jumps the psd out of the hole. Thats what the independent tests showed. The TS is a superior transmission. The cummins makes more hp at lower rpms than the PSD. Like you said. You cant defy physics. If the cummins makes more hp at low rpms. How can the tests show the PSD dominating at low end work? Its impossible. Unless your trying to rewrite physics. More hp = more work. Drive a six speed and you can really feel the difference.
Autos muddle the results. The TC can throw away useless rpms to get you closer to peak hp. High stall converter. Bamm your at peak hp. Doing as much work as your engine was ever designed to do. With a stick. You gotta earn those rpms. You cant just skip over the lame part of the powerband. Your stuck with it. What did those six speed tests show? Unfavorable results.

The PSD has to play catchup. With the rpms it does just that. With the closer spaced gears it also is able to stay closer to peak hp in its shifts. So even though they have identical hp. The PSD is faster because it has more gears and it has more rpms.

 

Ironman. Were you going to address this issue? I would be concerned about this.

 

The Cummins "allegedly" makes more power down low. A lot of the out of the hole stuff can be attributed to torque converters, gear ratios in the tranny, gear ratios in the rear end, and tire heights. Bottom line: The PSD SPANKS the Cummins in acceleration testing. And what's worse, it appears that the bigger the load, the worse to Cummins fares in regard to the PSD.

 

Look, first off I don't believe any road test that any overpaid magazine editor does on these two trucks let alone any other vehicles. Its all a crock of poop!! Like I said it all comes down to preference. So, what if the PSD is a second faster off the line. Big deal so you beat me to the next red light where we have to stop again. BIG DEAL!!! All I know is that I have driven both with towing and without towing. The Cummins performs better under a heavy load (with the 6 speed manual) and the PSD is better for all around driving. I do think that Dodge really dropped the ball with that terrible 4 speed auto, but the six speed manual is better than anything Ford has right now. But again, that is only my opinion. Somebody else may think differently. But lets not argue over what diesel engine is better by what some article or idiot magazine editor says. The fact is, is that both trucks get the job done equally or better than any of us need it to. And of course they both get the job done better than the Unreliamax!! Again that's an opinion!!!!